OREANDA-NEWS. September 27, 2010. Belarus and Latvia may reach USD1 billion in trade in 2010, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky told at a press conference after a meeting with Prime Minister of Latvia Valdis Dombrovskis in Riga.

Face to face and enlarged negotiations between leaders of the two governments took place as part of a two-day working visit of the Belarusian Premier to Latvia.

According to the PM, the two states made USD2 billion in trade before the crisis. Sergei Sidorsky expressed confidence that they would be able to restore the pre-crisis level. In H1 2010 the trade totaled almost USD 500 million, and there are all necessary prerequisites to hit USD 1 billion by the end of the year.

In his words, Belarus and Latvia make everything possible to expand economic cooperation, involve more businessmen in new joint projects. There are almost 300 Latvian companies in Belarus, with 600 companies of Belarus in Latvia.

Sergei Sidorsky stressed the importance of the Belarusian export cargo for the Latvian economy. Belarus accounts for almost 20% of the freight processed in the Latvian ports. Belarus is interested in further bilateral cooperation including the supplies of its agricultural equipment, potash fertilizers and dump trucks to Latvia.

The Premier stressed that a lot has already been done to expand the Belarusian-Latvian relations. The Zubr container train now connects Minsk and Riga. This route is expected to be prolonged to Estonia and include cargoes from Ukraine. The two countries have a regular air communication what is vital for the development of business cooperation.

According to Sergei Sidorsky, Belarus and Latvia have also signed a number of bilateral agreements on social cooperation including an agreement between the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the Healthcare and Finance Ministries of Belarus and the Ministry of Public Health, Wellbeing and Sports of Latvia on the order of applying the agreement on cooperation in social security. The governments of Belarus and Latvia have inked an agreement on cooperation in training administrative bodies. All the abovementioned agreements help strengthen the relations between the two states. “I hope our cooperation will soon reach a new level to benefit both the nations,” Sergei Sidorsky added.

Belarus is also considering the possibility of transporting oil and possibility of transshipping more oil products via Latvian sea ports, Prime Minister of Belarus told.

Sergei Sidorsky said that Belarus sees several promising directions for oil transshipment. The southern one offers access to Asia, India and other countries via Odessa while the northern one is represented by Russian and Baltic ports.

Speaking about prospects of cooperation with Latvian ports, Sergei Sidorsky said that Belarus will choose the one that will offer the best terms, including the terms of railway transportation, cargo delivery and handling. “Today we will examine the Riga port. There is a proposal for using it to ship and transship Belarusian oil and oil products here. If it is profitable for both countries, we will make the relevant decisions to step up our operation here”.

Asked whether Ventspils or Klaipeda is most attractive for Belarus, Sergei Sidorsky said that the port with the most advantageous terms is. “A well-developed infrastructure is important,” he said. The Belarusian Prime Minister added that two years ago the Ventspils port was inferior to the Klaipeda port. Since then many problems have been fixed, its competitive ability has increased and now the port cooperates with Belarusian exporters.

The Prime Minister underlined that Latvian ports are interesting for Belarus not only for transshipping oil and oil products. Belarus could use them for transshipping mechanical engineering products and agricultural machines. Apart from that, in the near future Belarus can increase the amount of potash fertilizers transshipped via Latvian ports. It will be done if their logistics improves, said the Belarusian Prime Minister.

In H1 2010 Belarus exported 630,000 tonnes of potash fertilizers via Ventspils. The Belarusian side is interested in increasing such exports.

For its part, the Latvian head of government expressed confidence in the dynamic development of cooperation between Latvia and Belarus. Apart from that, he offered Latvia’s help in promoting Belarus-EU partnership. “Latvia will provide assistance in expanding Belarus-EU cooperation,” he said.

The Latvian Prime Minister emphasized that Latvia is interested in deepening economic cooperation with Belarus. This pertains to oil supplies, joint projects in transport, and business links between the two states.

Valdis Dombrovskis reminded that during the visit of Belarus’ government delegation led by the Prime Minister the matter of Belarus-EU cooperation will stand separately on the agenda. In his words, “the parties will discuss the lifting of sanctions imposed on Belarus and a possibility to ease the visa regulations.”

During the working visit to Latvia Sergei Sidorsky attended the opening of the V International Belarusian-Latvian investment forum "The Baltic region - 2010" in Riga.

The Belarusian head of government underlined that Belarus places a great emphasis on the cooperation in transit with the Baltic Sea States.

Sergei Sidorsky emphasized the importance of projects in transportation. He reminded of the Zubr project to transport cargo from Minsk to Riga and then to Estonia. The Belarusian Premier mentioned another promising project that is implemented together with Italian partners Marco Polo. According to Sergei Sidorsky, Belarus successfully “catches up” cargo flows from Asian countries. The major task Belarus is facing today is to establish reliable transportation of the goods to the European Union. Over the recent times, Belarusian exporters have significantly improved logistics and now can transport cargo by train in 15-20 days, although it took much more time earlier. “At the same time there are issues we still have to settle,” the Premier concluded.

Also Belarus is interested in selling trolleybuses and trams to Riga, said Sergei Sidorsky as he met with Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs.

Sergei Sidorsky also said that Belarus is ready to make a proposal to set up joint ventures to make municipal vehicles.

Sergei Sidorsky took part in the II Baltic Economic Forum, which took place in Riga and met with representatives of business circles of Latvia.

Belarus hopes that the single economic space of the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan will become a reality earlier than planned, said Prime Minister of Belarus on meeting with Latvian businessmen in Riga.

“The heads of state set a task to make this happen by 1 January 2012. I believe we can do it sooner,” the Premier said. He noted that the legal framework of the single economic space of the Customs Union is expected to be prepared by 1 January 2011. The formation of the single economic space will determine the cooperation of the Customs Union member states in energy and the access to energy sources.

The Prime Minister reminded that Belarus plans to implement an ambitious economic liberalization program which is expected to propel the country to the top thirty states with the most favorable business climate. “We are determined to achieve these ambitious goals,” Sergei Sidorsky underlined. To this end, Belarus is carrying out a drastic liberalization of the legal framework and is trying to provide maximum assistance to each investor. Today any potential investor can register his company over a very short time. Belarus is streamlining its taxation system to get it compliant with European standards. Special hopes to raise additional investments are pinned to the National Investment Agency. “The agency will take care of each investor through all the stages, up to the establishment of an enterprise,” he said.

Talking about the peculiarities of privatization in Belarus, Sergei Sidorsky said that the privatization is targeted. Belarusian specialists are consulted by international experts, including those of the IMF.

The Prime Minister added that Belarus plans to keep expanding its export markets in the years to come. Today our country trades with over 160 states.

According to the PM, Belarus hopes to expand accessibility of its markets by developing its transit potential, upgrading its highways and railways. In his words, nearly USD 3 billion will be put in the construction of four-lane roads to the oblast centers. About USD 2 billion will be injected into the development of railways including high-speed railway traffic. The Customs Union will open additional opportunities for Belarus’ transit potential. Belarus plans to attract more freight traffic from the Asian countries including China.

According to Sergei Sidorsky, foreign investors including those from Latvia will benefit from working with Belarus as a member of the Customs Union (a market of 170 million people). The Customs Union major advantage is a free movement of goods within its territory. Conformance certificates as well as a number of other certificates will be valid in every Customs Union member-state.

The Prime Minister of Belarus expressed confidence that the Latvian and Belarusian business would intensify their activity on both the markets. According to him, the governments of the two countries have recently adopted a set of decisions to promote business partnership between Belarus and Latvia.

Sergei Sidorsky also hopes to promote small business including logistics. The Freeport of Riga and the port of Ventspils are viewed as Belarus’ promising partners. In his words, Belarus is in close cooperation with the Baltic states in freight traffic, simultaneously working with the ports of Russia and Ukraine.

Latvia is among the major investment partners of Belarus and is in the top ten of the biggest investors in Belarus following only Russia, Austria, the Netherlands, Cyprus, England, USA and China. Over the last five years, Belarus raised about USD 600 million in Latvian investments, including USD 29.6 million in H1 2010 of which USD 20.1 million were direct investments.

In January-July 2010, Belarus-Latvia trade made up USD 528.7 million (oil, oil products and potash fertilizers not included). The export was 97.7% from the same period in 2009. Belarus posted a trade surplus of USD 428.3 million.